Spook Loot
- Studio
- Wolper Productions, Larry Harmon Pictures
- Animation studio
- Hanna-Barbera Studios
- Distributor
- Columbia/Screen Gems
Synopsis
Undercover police detectives Laurel & Hardy are assigned to protect a rich dowager's collection of priceless jewels from the master thief known only as the Spook. That night, the Spook enters the rich dowager's mansion and takes one of his invisibility pills to steal the jewels. Detective Hardy is able to capture the Spook. Angered at being foiled by a mere flatfoot, the villain tosses away his last invisibility pill. Detective Laurel swallows the pill and becomes invisible. The loss of the evidence prevents the boys from making their collar against the Spook stick in court.
Characters
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, The Spook
Credits
Directing
- Director
- William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Producing
- Producer
- William Hanna, Joseph Barbera (Executive Producers)
Voices
- Voice
- Larry Harmon (Stan Laurel), Jim MacGeorge (Oliver Hardy), Don Messick (The Spook)
Music
- Music
- Hoyt S. Curtin
Production notes
This series ran a total of one hundred fifty six episodes. The shorts were originally broadcast in groups of four, making a total of 39 half-hour episodes. Each short had its own open and closing theme, so the shorts could be split off and shown individually in syndication.
This series was a cartoon version of the slapstick adventures of Laurel and Hardy, in the spirit of the original black & white live-action shorts.
Larry Harmon, the man who made Bozo the Clown a household name, had acquired the rights to the likenesses of the famous comedy duo from Stan and Eda Laurel, and Oliver Hardy's widow, Lucille, in 1961. (A large part of the profits from the cartoon series would eventually go to Stan Laurel's widow Eda.) Harmon's company, which had previously produced the Bozo animated cartoons and many of the made-for-TV Popeye cartoons under contract from King Features, began animating The Laurel and Hardy Comedy Show around the same time that producer David L. Wolper contracted with Hanna-Barbera to produce another series, following Laurel's death. A legal challenge followed, with Wolper and Harmon agreeing on a modus vivendi ( a state of affairs where two opposing parties agree to differ), wherein Harmon gave permission to use the characters in exchange for distribution rights. Harmon himself supplied the voice of Stan Laurel (1895-1965), with Jim Mac George voicing the rotund Oliver Hardy (1892-1957).
This series was a cartoon version of the slapstick adventures of Laurel and Hardy, in the spirit of the original black & white live-action shorts.
Larry Harmon, the man who made Bozo the Clown a household name, had acquired the rights to the likenesses of the famous comedy duo from Stan and Eda Laurel, and Oliver Hardy's widow, Lucille, in 1961. (A large part of the profits from the cartoon series would eventually go to Stan Laurel's widow Eda.) Harmon's company, which had previously produced the Bozo animated cartoons and many of the made-for-TV Popeye cartoons under contract from King Features, began animating The Laurel and Hardy Comedy Show around the same time that producer David L. Wolper contracted with Hanna-Barbera to produce another series, following Laurel's death. A legal challenge followed, with Wolper and Harmon agreeing on a modus vivendi ( a state of affairs where two opposing parties agree to differ), wherein Harmon gave permission to use the characters in exchange for distribution rights. Harmon himself supplied the voice of Stan Laurel (1895-1965), with Jim Mac George voicing the rotund Oliver Hardy (1892-1957).
